Steve McQueen To Make "Epic" BBC Drama On Black Experience In The UK From 1968 To 2014

The
London Daily Mail is reporting today that director Steve McQueen is in early development
on a BBC drama series he plans to
make, “exploring the black experience in
Britain."

McQueen told the paper that he soon plans to do a series
of workshops, with an as yet unnamed group of actors and writers, to start developing the
series, which will be set in West London, where McQueen was born.

He also said that the series will be "epic
in scope," and will chronicle the lives of a group of friends and their
families from 1968 to 2014.

He further added that he will spend most of this year developing
the project, sharing that he was inspired to do the
series since "I don’t think there has been a serious drama series in Britain with
black people from all walks of life as the main protagonists."

With 12 Years A Slave almost totally behind him, the director also has a project set up at HBO, with World War Z co-writer Matthew Michael Carnahan, as well as Russell Simmons, and the Oscar-winning producers of The King’s Speech,Iain Canning and Emile Sherman. Details are currently sparse on the drama project, but it's being described as "an exploration of a young African American man’s experience entering New York high society, with a past that may not be what it seems."